But Edelman isn’t in his element. The room is silent and the musicians he’s directing are nonexistent.

Cameras surround him from nearly every angle. Small, bulbous sensors stick to his skin. The four highly sensitive scales at his feet track his weight as he shifts and leans. Nearby, a mounted computer screen captures the scene: Edelman’s form, represented by bright white dots, swings and sways on an otherwise black screen.

“If you’re conducting a 40-minute work and you have bad posture, you’ll be in pain when it’s over. Most of us have bad posture. We spend a lot of time with our heads in the score, so we get a habit of hunching over to watch the music and watch the kids too,” Edelman said.